Kate Baggott from www.Babylune.com with her entry and 9 comments.
I tried to stay neutral and not accidently comment on these post lest I tip the scales in anyone’s favor by accident.
Here’s the screenshot where I also sent payment to her! 
Thanks everyone who participated. If you want to see all the entries, check them out at this link.
Dan, from EmptyEasel submitted his take on what Art means to him. Check it out below, and check out Empty Easeltoo.
Art is hard work.
Unlike some, I can’t relax when I’m painting. It’s too difficult, and to be completely honest, I don’t always enjoy it. The real reason I create art—the one thing that makes it worthwhile—is seeing that finished, perfect painting when I’m done.
I actually feel the same way about painting as I do about working on my 1976 Datsun 280z. I love that car, but it takes some serious work to keep it in good shape.
Every time I head out to the garage I just expect to skin my knuckles getting a bolt loose, or to spill brake fluid all over the floor trying to get those darn air bubbles out of the brake lines.
So I plan ahead to make it easier on myself, assembling all my tools beforehand and thinking through the process each step of the way. When I make mistakes, I work twice as hard to fix them, because I know that’s the only way I’ll get my car back on the road again.
And that’s exactly the way I paint, too. I wish it came easy, but it doesn’t—and I’m amazed when I hear other artists say that painting itself is fun. Is it really, for you? Are there any artists out there who know what I’m saying?
Because for me at least, art means a hard day’s work—and yet it’s still worth it in the end.
Don’t for get to vote by leaving a comment below. 
Ken Walters submitted this entry for the What art means to me competition.
In my art I try to bring together my experiences, skills and emotions. I draw on my experiences, filtered through my emotions and moods and use my skills to ‘paint’ with light on my pc. I use my own software to translate what I see and feel into still frame images, I’ve replaced the brush and pencil with an electronic pen and tablet. Unlike with paint, I can vary the intensity of light in the images to reflect my thinking and emotions. I find it far more liberating and intensive than paint, and I control powerful computing ability to render my imagination into digital reality.
don’t forget to vote for him by commenting.
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Kate Baggott from Babylune shares what art means to her as part of the Guest post contest here at Artist Hideout:
A character in a story I once wrote, says, “The world is not a beautiful place, you have to work to be beautiful in it.”
The character lives on the same planet as the rest of us. It is, maybe, a place that we experience one way and see another way depending on the amount of news media we consume.
Art, in all its forms, makes me reconsider that gap between what I live and what I — whether consciously or not — just judge. Or dismiss.
And I do mean the AIDS epidemic in Africa, the deaths of countless Iraqi civilians, the returning coffins of soldiers to their native soil, brainwashed suicide bombers and the countless global tragedies that march on around us with only a reaction of accepted powerlessness that is the dulling and numbing of human culture.
Art lets me see something else, something other than human self-destruction. Instead, art shows me the individual and the collective creation of a person, of a people, runs contrary to the dulling, the numbing of us.
I don’t think I react to art. Instead, I reconsider.
It’s not too late to jump in on the contest.
Don’t forget to have your friends vote for you by getting comments on your guest post.
Our second submission for the contest comes from Judi Cahill:
Art is everything and anything in the world. Since I was a child I loved colors and textures of art. As I grew older I loved the sounds of art. I would paint or create. When I wanted to study art my parents discouraged me. When I didn’t finish school art was a distant memory until I was pregnant with my first child at eighteen, everything became art again. The whole creation process of carrying a child stimulated my energy for art. I began to write poetry and sketch. Now, seven years after the birth of son and I enrolled in school to get my Art degree. I work in an office as an assistant and all I can think about is creating ART! I would love to work in a museum as a curator or at an Ad agency as an Art Director or a freelance Artist. Art is everything to me. I will pass this passion to my children. They create, color and mold whatever they see. When my oldest son goes to college and says “Mom I want to study art!” My response will be, ” Art is everything, as long as you create art, you energy will never be lost!” Art is warm, cold, dreamy, bland or full of spice. Art is having a wish and making it come true. Art is a dream transformed onto canvas, to clay or to whatever you imagine in your heart. I will finish school and get my Art Degree.
Thanks for your submission Judi.
Our first guest post for the contest comes from Katelyn Thomas of Stamping Mad.
For me, art is that safety valve on the furnace. If I am building up too much stress, I go art something. People laugh at me and say I’ve never grown up when they catch me with a table full of canvases and paint, (or maybe its the way the paint is smeared on my nose they’re laughing at.) but I’m feeling really mellow at that point, so I don’t point out that being an artist is actually a career entry in the Occupational Handbook. Hey, building sand castles can be a career, for that matter.
Without art, I’d be terminally grumpy and overstressed. I won’t say it is cheaper than therapy. It is actually probably more expensive. However, it is definitely more fun, although the wiped out feeling once I’ve gotten a piece of art right sounds like it is pretty close to what people say they feel when they’ve had a breakthrough in therapy. Plus, I can sell my art and I’m pretty sure I’d never be able to sell a therapy session.
I’ve been curious about doing a contest around here for awhile, but I hate the concept of judging a contest, so I decided to open it up and let readers be the judge through the comments.
It’s progressive because I figure, the more page views, the better the prize will be (because I get paid for page views). There will be only one winner for this contest, but the prize will just get better for each level of page views.
Let’s go through the prize list* first of all.
- 1,000,000 page views – Nikon d40x
- 750,000 page views – Photoshop
- 500,000 Page views – 80gb iPod
- 250,000 page views – 22″ LCD Monitor
- 100,000 Page Views – Original Art from Josh Simpson, small megaplanet
- 50,000 Page Views – $50 via paypal
* winner can choose to also take the equivalent in a cash prize via paypal.
Here’s how it will work. To enter the contest, all you have to do is write a post for Artist Hideout of 150 – 250 words on the subject “What does art mean to you?” Make it funny, make it memorable, and make it creative (videos accepted). Email it to: william@b5media.com with the subject title “What art means to me“
Then, you can ask friends, relatives, readers of your own blog to come and comment over on your guest post and share what art means to them too in the comments. Each comment works as one vote for you.
At the end of August, I will tally up the votes to see who has the most and send out the prize earned by page views.
So the more people you have post comments, the more page views and the better the prize.
Pretty simple right?
So get writing and sending me your submissions.
Feel free to ask questions below too.
I don’t get a whole lot of commission work. I guess I find it frustrating on a certain level because commissioned work involves trying to please someone else with your art, but every now and then I do. I usually only accept it if it is design work as opposed to a painting or portrait.
Now in life everything intertwines, and art is only an element of the tapestry that life is. This makes some commission work hard. Let me give you a scenario to illustrate this:
These are my personal views:
I am a Christian. This means I have certain values which do not coincide with certain views of others. I know that and I recognize it. I am pro-life, believe that homosexuality is a sin, I honor my body as the temple of Christ living in me through abstaining from alcohol and addictive drugs (besides caffeine…lol). I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He died and rose again on the third day to pay the price for my own redemption from sin. I believe that only through Jesus Christ is this redemption possible. I believe in the validity of scripture and that God’s word endures as an authentic, reliable testimony of God working through the ages. I live my life in this manner.
I will not debate any of this in comments either by the way and I’ll expect the same kind of tolerance that others expect of me. I’m not here to argue any of that. In fact, I’ll mark you as spam or delete it if you try to…lol.
But here’s where the discussion turns. If someone asks me to do a design for something that is overtly opinionated and promoting of values or views that are contrary to my own, I have a hard time putting the same kind of passion into such a thing as I would with something that was inline or completely unrelated, especially since it is so against my own belief structure.
But when it is commission work, should a person lay these personal values down in order to please a customer? (fell free to comment on this question)
I recently decided to take on a logo design project without reading the blog it was for first. After I agreed, I went and looked at it only to find that it had a contrary message to what I believed. I knew that if I did the logo, many years down the road I may very well find it and be frustrated with my participation in it. Luckily, the guy backed out.
There is a certain amount of frustration I get when reading “mainstream art world” news. Little things pop out at me like this statement.
Not surprisingly, gallerists, collectors, auction-house executives and art advisers say they are hopeful, even confident, that the boom will continue. But almost everyone agrees that the rapid rise in prices — especially for contemporary art — has to do less with a love of art than with an influx of art investors.
“…has to do less with a love of art than with an influx of art investors?!” That happens to make me mad. This pretty much means that people without any appreciation of the art they are buying are purchasing art only to resell at a higher price later.
Any artist that actually cares about beauty would be appalled at this. Probably even refuse to sell the work. Granted, it’s nice to be in demand, but what are you in demand for? An auction spot or a chance to share your unique vision through your art.
Where is the love? Oh, it’s in the money. I’d rather give away a piece to someone who genuinely appreciates the work than sell it to someone who just wants to use it to make a buck. There’s my 2 cents worth….lol. I may have to add a rant category.
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Well, there have been various studies on the effects of Art by the medical community down through the years. Recently, the study relating to revitalizing the atrophied brain came out in the news. It got me thinking.
Doing art is more than just sitting down to draw something. It’s a form of expression that belies our deepest fears and hopes, crosses economical and social boundaries, breaks through the remnants of racial prejudices that continue to exist and can make the young wise beyond their years, and the old young again.
The study suggests that mice who were induced with brain atrophy were able to recuperate and even stimulate new brain growth through an engaging and interactive environment where other mice in a plain old cage fell prey to the degenerative effects of the ongoing atrophy.
So what’s this mean for the artist?
It means that art can keep us young, even if our bodies grow old because art stimulates the mind, keeps us thinking and active mentally.
by the way, I love the image above from Mike Wade
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